July 18, 2012

Mozilla Firefox 14 Comes With Google Search Encryption

by editor

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online

Mozilla released on Tuesday an updated version of Firefox 14, adding automatic encryption of Google searches to protect users´ data from “potentially prying eyes, like network administrators when you use public or shared WiFi networks," the company said in a blog post.

Although Google is currently the only search engine that supports encrypted searches, "we look forward to supporting additional search engines with this feature in the future," Mozilla said.

HTTPS is typically used by financial Web sites to provide added security, but a growing number of sites, including popular social networks along with Google, have added HTTPS to secure their users´ personal data.

Last October, Google said it would encrypt the searches of users signed into their Google Accounts. The search giant had said earlier in the year that it would encrypt all synced data on its Chrome Web browser.

In addition to the new encryption features, Mozilla said it has updated the way Firefox displays security icons in the URL bar. Regular sites will be denoted with a globe to the left of the URL, while those with SSL encryption will display a lock icon and "https" in the address bar. Sites with extended validation (EV) certificates will show a green lock icon and the name of the site owner.

Firefox 14 also includes new gaming features, including support for Pointer Lock API, which provides better mouse control for games and apps.

The new release includes support for native full-screen mode with OS X Lion 10.7, which Mozilla said gives an improved video and Web game experience.